Whole Wheat Vanilla Pancakes: Recipe

Want to know the most scrumptious thing you can make for breakfast this weekend? It's these pancakes. Seriously, they are so good I made them twice this week. I've been slowly but surely testing out more and more recipes from whole grain cookbooks, trying to learn how to cook with whole grains. I just want to perfect that handful of recipes I can turn to time and again.

Whole wheat flour can be a tough ingredient to work with because it has such a strong flavor and texture. Often I use white whole wheat flour from King Arthur or I mix half all purpose white flour with half whole wheat but in this recipe, use all whole wheat. The pancakes are both fluffy and moist at the same time. Of course, I put maple syrup on them too! If you have a vanilla syrup like the ones from Sonoma Syrup Company, you could use those instead.

The recipe originally comes from the Betty Crocker Whole Grains: Easy Everyday Recipes, but I've taken more than a few liberties with it. I've made a smaller batch since the original recipe served 7(!) and I've added more leavening and bumped up the vanilla flavor. I hope you like it.

Whole Wheat Vanilla Pancakes
serves 2

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/4 cup vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup water
1 Tablespoon oil (canola, grapeseed or rice bran oil)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk together the whole wheat flour, sugar, baking powder and soda and salt in one bowl and make sure there are no lumps. In another bowl whisk together the egg, yogurt, water, oil and vanilla. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and stir until moistened. Use a very scant 1/4 cup per pancake cooking on a griddle over medium high heat. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until bubbles form and flip, cooking until golden brown.

Enjoy!

Italian Cookbooks

When it comes to Italian food, the true measure of whether a recipe is authentic is whether it's the way your Italian mamma made it. It's hard to say whether a cookbook is ever truly authentic, unless of course your mamma wrote it. With Italian food, I think you need to get a feel for how Italians approach food and then use recipes as only a guide. Here are three Italian cookbooks I like very much, each for a different reason.

It's been a couple of years since the American edition of The Silver Spoon was published, but it remains one of my favorites. It is still the most comprehensive Italian cookbook I have ever come across with over 2,000 recipes. It has very traditional recipes but more modern ones as well. For example, while not a traditional Italian ingredient, Italians are crazy about Scottish smoked salmon and it is featured in several recipes.

It disturbs me that the brand-new edition of The New Regional Italian Cuisine Cookbook is written by a Bavarian author. But perhaps only a foreigner can take a fresh look at the wonder of Italy? Certainly the book has an almost German-like attention to detail. What I like least about this book are the 200 recipes which seem a little bit fussier than I recall from my time in Italy. What I love about the book are the images.The book is almost like a travel guide with more than 650 color photos which really give you a sense of the regions, the recipes and perhaps most importantly the ingredients.

Each region in the book includes many two page spreads on the local products. Italian cuisine is intensely "ingredient-driven" so this is a great feature of the book. In planning an upcoming trip to Italy, it's quickly become the book I refer to when trying to familiarize myself with the region of Campania. You can check out some sample pages here.

If The New Regional Italian Cuisine is a book only a foreigner could have written, than perhaps Italian Regional Cooking by Ada Boni is the book only an Italian could have written. It is familiar to me because it's the book I grew up with, and frankly I have never had any problems with the recipes. It is perhaps the most detailed regional Italian cookbook of the three with 600 recipes divided by region, and it has a very Italian sensibility.

READ MORE Today I reviewed an utterly charming and brand new Italian cookbook called Massimo's Italian Kitchen. You'll find the full review and a recipe on Bay Area Bites.

Monday Morning Update

1. Thanks to Food Blogga for awarding Cooking with Amy the excellent blog award! I don't mean to brag, but to alert you to some other excellent blogs. You really you should check out all of Food Blogga's picks. There were several I never heard of before such as The Well Seasoned Cook and Canela & Comino. Head over to Food Blogga to see all her picks and poke around the site a bit.

2. You're not alone if you've never heard of Creole Shrubb from Rhum Clement, even the bartender I asked on Friday night hadn't. But it's a shame. The stuff is amazing! It's a scrumptious mix of spices, citrus and two kinds of rum. I got a chance to see some local bartenders make magic with it. Read more about Clement Creole Shrubb on GlamDish today.

3. How many recipe search engines do you have bookmarked? One? Two? Three? Read my post on Recipe Search Engines and learn about the four I recommend on EpiLog today.

Fennel Shrimp:Recipe

We all know that fresh herbs can make a dish sing. But my herb garden is in hibernation these days. Some of the parsley is coming back, and a few leaves of mint, barely enough for a garnish really, so I've had to resort to buying fresh herbs, and looking for other options. One decidedly herbal enhancer I've been playing with is Pernod.

Pernod Fils used to be one of the most popular brands of absinthe. After 1915 when absinthe was no longer legal in most of Europe, the recipe changed, but the herbal and anise flavors remained. While it's not the type of thing I drink, Pernod, like Pastis and ouzo, it's absolutely wonderful to use in cooking. For years I had a bottle of ouzo that I used when steaming mussels or sauteing seafood. But it had a syrup like consistency and I find Pernod to be a bit more subtle. The fennel flavor it lends to vegetables and seafood is really delicate when used in moderation. The Pernod website has great suggestions and recipes to get you inspired.

I'm trying to follow the guidelines for sustainable seafood that the Monterey Bay Aquarium suggests these days, and one change I've made is to buy American shrimp at a local market from time to time instead of the cheaper imported shrimp. I butterflied them and cooked them quickly with onion, fennel and equal parts Pernod and sour cream and just a bit of fresh parsley. The resulting dish was pink and creamy with sweet herbal notes that played nicely against the saltiness and sweetness of the shrimp. It was such a pretty dish, I think it would perfect for a dinner party. Don't you?

Fennel Shrimp
Serves 2

14-15 large shrimp, peeled, deveined, and butterflied about 3/4 lb
1 Tablespoon butter or olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/4 cup chopped fennel
1 clove minced garlic
1/4 cup Pernod
1 Tablespoon chopped parsley
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon salt

Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté the shrimps for 1-2 minutes or until pink but not completely cooked through. Add the onions, fennel, and garlic and saute for 2 minutes. Add the Pernod and simmer for 1 minute. Add the parsley and sour cream and stir to combine. Add the salt and cook for about 1 1/2 minutes, or until just cooked through and pink.

Spoon the shrimp and sauce over rice.

Enjoy!

Meet the Contributing Editor of Glam Dish

It's me! I am the contributing editor of the newly launched Glam Dish blog! I'm posting 4 days a week, so I hope you will check it out from time to time and say "hi." I'm doing my best to keep my head above water so hang with me until I adjust to the workload.

My first post is all about bollito misto in the form or an interview with Peter McNee, the chef at Poggio Trattoria in Sausalito. I've also included some links so you can make it at home, if you like.

You'll notice I've snuck another button over on the left hand column to make it easy to get to my posts. Without it even I would have a hard time keeping up!

READ MORE Over at Bay Area Bites is my round up of whole grain cookbooks.

World in a Teacup: Tracing the Global Journey of Tea

The Hearst Museum of Anthropology is hosting a special event exploring the trajectory of tea in its many forms: from ancient origins in Asia, through its spread to Britain, India and the rest of the world, to contemporary manufacture and its modern role in popular culture.

Experts will discuss the history and trends of production, preparation, consumption and retailing of tea and related goods. Attendees will then enjoy opportunities to sample tea and other products from select Bay Area purveyors.

I've already bought tickets for this event! Hope to see you there.

Amy

DATE/TIME:
Saturday, March 1
1-3:30 Speaker presentations and discussion
3:30-5 Vendor event/sampling

LOCATION:
The Bancroft Hotel
2680 Bancroft Way at College
Berkeley, CA, 94704
hotel web site

COST & REGISTRATION:
Tickets are $20.00 general admission; $18.00 for museum members, UC Berkeley
faculty, staff, and students.

MORE INFO:
website

email
Phone: 510-643-7649 Contact: Akiko Minaga

Each ticket includes:
- admission to the program
- admission to the vendor event with sampling
- a special gift bag with samples to take home

Space for the event is limited and tickets are available on a first come first served basis. Purchase by:
* Credit Card by phone 510-643-7649
* Check made out to UC Regents mailed to PAHMA, UC Berkeley, 103 Kroeber
Hall, MC #3712, Berkeley, CA 94720-3712
* Cash at The Museum Store, Kroeber Hall

The panel discussion will take place at the Bancroft Hotel, located at
2680 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94704, and the vendor event will take
place at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, locatesd across the
street. (College and Bancroft)

Speakers:
Eliot Jordan, Director of Tea, Peet's Coffee and Tea
Erika Rappaport, UC Santa Barbara (British tea/history)
Winnie Yu, Tea Buyer and owner of Teance
Gregory Levine, UC Berkeley (Japanese, Zen and Buddhist Art)

There will also be a panel discussion moderated by Curator, Ira Jacknis.

Here is a sampling from our current vendor list:
L'Amyx
Peet's
Teance
Charles Chocolate

Kona kampachi Ceviche: Recipe

I know, it's February and I ought to be singing the praises of cabbage and turnips but frankly I'm not in the mood. The sun is shining, the weather is warm and I feel like celebrating with something tropical and refreshing. I need a break from Winter. Right now. And ceviche is just the ticket.

Knowing that the ocean's resources are rapidly being depleted, we should all be concerned with the sustainability of our seafood. The problem with seafood harvested in the wild is that it has the potential to drop below sustainable levels. You probably know what has happened to cod populations and tuna may not be far behind. Also in some instances the pollution and chemical levels in wild fish is not very healthy. On the other hand some farmed seafood practices can lead to pollution and disease which can harm wild populations. There is no hard and fast rule. In some instances we should buy wild, in other instances farmed seafood.

Kona Blue, the company that produces Kona kampachi was founded by two marine biologists who wanted to find a way to raise fish that would be healthy for the the ocean, the fish and for human consumption. For me, tilapia is mealy and bland though inexpensive and sustainable. While Kona kampachi is relatively expensive, it's worth every penny. Similar to a type of Jack or Kahala, it's high in healthy fat, has fantastic moist firm texture and luscious flavor. While it is not local, the company is looking into different locations around the world to minimize shipping distances and lower cost.They are also working to help establish organic standards for farmed seafood.

I've had the chance to try this fish cooked and raw and while it's good cooked, it's just amazing raw. I hesitate to give a recipe for ceviche because you really should make it to taste. This is how I make it, but by all means, add, subtract, experiment and make something yummy. I tried it with red chile flake, with yuzu kosho and with a combination of both and it was delicious every which way. Chilling the fish to make it easy to dice.

Kona kampachi Ceviche
makes 2 cups

1 cup Kona kampachi, diced (about 6 ounces)
3/4 cup corn, cooked (fresh or good quality canned or frozen)
1/2 avocado, diced
1/4 cup red onion, diced
1/4 cup cilantro, roughly chopped (or more to taste)
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoons olive oil (I used a blood orange olive oil for more flavor)
1/2 teaspoon red chile flakes, fresh chile, yuzu kosho or combination.

Gently combine all the ingredients and allow the fish to marinate for at least 10 minutes. Serve with plenty of tortilla chips.

Enjoy!

Favorite things: Brut Rosé

Chatting with winemaker Eileen Crane is almost as delightful as a glass of sparkling wine. In fact, Eileen is a bit like the sparkling wine she makes--bright, sophisticated, elegant but completely unpretentious and fits in just about anywhere. She's a great person to talk to about wine, because she's been making it at European style wineries in California for ages. She's been a winemaker at noted sparkling wine producers Gloria Ferrer and Domaine Chandon, in addition to Domaine Carneros in Napa Valley, where she's been for the last twenty years.

I talked to Eileen because I wanted to get to the bottom of why I am so crazy about sparkling rosé, especially brut rosé. Now as we are heading in to Valentine's Day it seems like the perfect bubbly, but actually, it's the perfect bubbly all the time, as far as I'm concerned. Sure it has a festive color, and a rarity about it, but there are so many more reasons to love it.

Perhaps most importantly, we talked about brut rosé being one of the of the more versatile wines around. Even Julia Child noted, "Rosés can be served with anything." Hamburgers? Seafood? Salad? Pork? Barbecue? Charcuterie? Turkey? Indian food? Pizza? Yes! In fact, it has become one of my favorite picks to go with a multi course tasting menu because there is hardly anything it doesn't complement. Eileen blends Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, the color comes from Pinot, and it's the Pinot that gives sparkling rosé some backbone.

Just because it's pink, doesn't mean it's sweet, brut still means dry. The brut rosé from Domaine Carneros is particularly crisp and almost lemony with some just a hint of strawberry and melon or peach. Called Cuvée de la Pompadour, it's namesake is Madame de Pompadour who introduced Champagne to the court of King Louis XV and was known for her artistic eye and her seductive ways. It used to be available only at the winery, but now it has much wider distribution and sells for about $36 a bottle.

Eileen told me she opens a bottle of it and keeps it in the refrigerator. If it's sealed properly with a good champagne stopper, it actually holds its flavor better than many other wines, not to mention the bubbles. At 12% alcohol it is also an easier drinking wine that I can enjoy a splash more of, something I can't say about too many wines these days.

When it comes to lesser sparkling wines, Eileen recommends making cocktails out of them and I couldn't agree more. Any berry or fruit flavored simple syrup will turn bubbly into a blushing refresher. But if you find a brut rosé you like, I suggest you enjoy how special it is without any adulteration. And by all means, don't just drink it on Valentine's Day!

Meet Alice Medrich at Charles Chocolates

Photo ©Abigail Huller

Just in time for Valetine's Day! The Alice Medrich event at Charles Chocolates has been rescheduled. Meet Alice Medrich and perhaps do a little holiday shopping at a favorite local chocolate shop.

Charles Chocolates has a lovely Valentine's Day collection including very traditional heart shaped boxes, but my pick would be this heart decorated edible box filled with passion fruit, raspberry and mojito chocolate hearts, eight of each flavor. Fresh, delicious and unique.



Alice Medrich will be signing her latest book, Pure Dessert, which was one of my favorite books of 2007. Hear her experiences working with chocolate and try some locally made chocolate confections.

A visit to the Charles Chocolates retail shop is always a treat, it's attached to the chocolate factory where you can see practically everything that goes into creating chocolates. Proprietor Chuck Siegel like Alice Medrich, is a chocolate innovator, creating beautiful confections and reinterpreting classic and new chocolate combinations.

I hope you'll join me at Charles Chocolate for this free event with Alice Medrich, please RSVP here, to guarantee admission.

Tuesday, February 12th, 6-8pm

Charles Chocolates Chocolate Bar
6529 Hollis St.
Emeryville, CA

for a map, click here

Hotel Chocolat Goody Bag Review

Let's talk chocolate. I promised you a review of Hotel Chocolat's Valentine's Day offerings. Hotel Chocolat is a British chocolate company that recently launched their treats in the US, available online. They are also hosting a contest for Valentine's Day. But in case you were on the fence about entering, perhaps this will help you make up your mind.

The Goody Bag of the Season changes but when I tried it there were two scrumptious slabs of chocolate, a bag of caramel and Florentine canapes, praline butterflies and a chocolate dipper.

I really loved the milk rocky road chocolate slab. A super thick chocolate bar has chocolate chip cookie, puffed rice and white chocolate bites. It tasted like a candy bar with lots of textures in every bite, it's crunchy, crispy and creamy. It kind of reminded me of a mix-in ice cream, without the ice cream! Very silky and high quality.

The caramel canapes might have been my favorite treat of all. This is a high cocoa milk chocolate so it's much richer than what I think of as milk chocolate. Each mini tile has little chunks of chewy florentine and a drop of caramel. Just a couple of these are satisfyingly sweet.

The raspberry creme slab tastes a bit like a raspberry milkshake. The dried raspberries that are embedded in it are unsweetened so they provide a tangy counterpoint to the sweet white chocolate that is creamy, not waxy and not too sweet.

The butterfly pralines were my least favorite. Mostly wrapped in white chocolate they were just a tad too sweet for my taste, though I did appreciate the hazelnut filling and they were awfully cute.

Want your own goody bag? One person who enters the Hotel Chocolat contest, using this link, is guaranteed to win. To enter, explain in 200 words or less why Hotel Chocolat should surprise your loved one with a luxury chocolate gift. Dig deep and tell a moving tale, as the most compelling entry will win! And it can be a funny story, an inspiring story, a beautiful story, or even a romantic story. The competition closes on February 8th, 2008 and entries will appear live on the Hotel Chocolat site.

The Future of Chinese Food continued

On January 23rd the San Francisco Professional Food Society presented an insightful panel discussion on the future of Chinese cuisine in the US, along with The Asia Society and the Chinese Cultural Center. The panelists were (seated from left to right) Martin Yan, TV host and master chef author of 26 cookbooks, Alex Ong, Betelnut partner and executive chef, Albert Cheng, former three-term president of the Chinese Culture Center; Nicole Mones, author of the novels Lost in Translation, A Cup of Light, and The Last Chinese Chef, and moderator Olivia Wu, currently chef at Google and a former writer for the San Francisco Chronicle.

One of the hurdles to great Chinese food in the US has been immigration policies. In a discussion about Chinese immigration to the US, it was mentioned that opening a Chinese restaurant was often the only opportunity for Chinese immigrants. Often those restaurateurs were not professional chefs, and as a result did not have the same passion for the cuisine as you might expect. According to Yan, immigrants who open Chinese restaurants rarely have been trained as chefs and usually don't want their children following in their footsteps. Ong agreed, saying his parents were terribly disappointed when he told them he was becoming a chef.

Wu also pointed out that Chinese chefs are often unable to communicate with their customers so they stay in the kitchen. They don't understand branding, marketing and promotion and this holds their restaurants back.

Most of the panel spoke wistfully about the diversity of the cuisine in China and Mones complained about the sauce-driven style of cooking here that relies on heavy sauces as opposed to the subtle flavors one finds in China, where there are estimated to be between 5,000 and 10,000 different dishes. In China, she explained, there is barely enough sauce to cover the dish. Here long menus often obscure the fact that only a handful of sauces are being used.

Ong questioned the American taste level and waxed poetic about the joy of eating "the bones" something echoed by most of the panel. He complained about his customers only wanting the velveted style of chicken breast meat.

Favorite dishes among the panelists that they rarely find in the US included Beggar's chicken, red braised pork belly and broad beans with toon leaves.

A question arose as to whether we as diners are willing to pay for great Chinese food, since we have come to regard it almost as "exotic fast food" that is always cheap. On the flip side, Ong complained most Chinese restaurants choose to compete only on price disregarding elements such as service, decor and having a bar.

So what advice did the panel have for American eaters?
• Keep trying new places
• Always try one or two dishes you are unfamiliar with, when you eat out
• Ask about the specialties of the house

To read the first part of this story posted last week, click here

The Future of Chinese Food

On January 23rd the San Francisco Professional Food Society presented an insightful panel discussion on the future of Chinese cuisine in the US, along with The Asia Society and the Chinese Cultural Center. The panelists were (seated from left to right) Martin Yan, TV host and master chef author of 26 cookbooks, Alex Ong, Betelnut partner and executive chef, Albert Cheng, former three-term president of the Chinese Culture Center; Nicole Mones, author of the novels Lost in Translation, A Cup of Light, and The Last Chinese Chef, and moderator Olivia Wu, currently chef at Google and a former writer for the San Francisco Chronicle.

The discussion focused mostly on the challenges of finding great Chinese food in the US. While a few panelists did not mind American-style Chinese food, having traveled extensively in China, they all agreed there are many hurdles to finding truly authentic Chinese food in America. From the outset, Wu mentioned the following:

• Limits on Chinese immigration
• Lack of availability of ingredients
• The predominance of "American style" Chinese food
• Perception of Chinese food as exotic fast food--cheap and familiar
• Not knowing where to go and what to order

Wu began her comments by saying that understanding the language and food are equally important to "living" the culture of China, something Mones agreed with. She also wanted the audience to know that traditional ways of eating in China are healthful, something echoed later by Martin Yan who observed if eating Chinese food was so bad for you, how come there are 1.3 billion people in China?

Alex Ong talked about Chinese food being a "never-ending artichoke" where the more layers you peel back, the more you find. Ong explained that the problem is not unique to America. He grew up in a Chinese family in Malaysia and after visiting China for the first time in 1999 he threw away all his recipes for Chinese food, amazed at how different it was from what he had eaten his whole life.

Cheng gave a brief run down of the history of Chinese immigration and the exclusion acts that kept Chinese out of America. It was pointed out that Chinese immigrants from just a few regions end up cooking dishes from all over China, rather than specializing in regional cuisine. Cheng also recited a famous quote in Chinese that "eating is the greatest pleasure under heaven." Very true for many of us!

Ong and Wu shared a perspective about good places getting overrun, and how sometimes Chinese people don't want their favorite places becoming too popular for legitimate fear the quality will decline.

Martin Yan who recently opened a Chinese cooking academy in China said the supply of labor force was a limiting factor. In China cooking schools are more vocational than professional and they turn out good technicians, but not mature chefs. Also, culturally speaking, both Yan and Ong commiserated that becoming a chef is not well-regarded by most Chinese families who would rather their children become doctors or lawyers.

Next week read more about Chinese food in the US including the panelists tips for how to get a great Chinese meal